“U.S. Ski Team High Performance Cen-ter,” and the school’s on-hill venue nameda “U.S. Ski Team Development Site.”Luke Bodensteiner, executive vicepresident of athletics for U.S. Ski &Snowboard, said Burke Mountain Acad-emy “really led the conversation” on clos-ing the gap between Olympic-level train-ing and 15- and 16-year-olds on the wayup. “When the Academy came to us andsaid they wanted to talk through their vi-sion and see if we could help coordinate,that was absolutely a meeting we weregoing to take. The other thing that madethis idea even more palatable was thatthe school wanted to share this modelwith other ski academies.”As the academy was pivoting to thisnew vision, the situation at Burke resortwas also gradually stabilizing. In April2016, a federal judge appointed MichaelGoldberg as the resort’s receiver — giv-ing him the power to manage the resort’sassets and property. Goldberg made re-markable headway in a year’s time, reim-bursing contractors who were left hold-ing invoices for work completed, payingdelinquent taxes, and getting a new 116-room hotel open to the public. In someways the academy, which has always hada strong bond with the mountain, be-came a shoulder to lean on during thedifficult times.

“What came about was an opportu-nity to reignite and rebuild some relation-ships that had not been strengthened overthe last few years,” said Kevin Mack, whoworks for Goldberg as director of resortservices at Burke Mountain. “We werein a situation fraught with a lot of un-knowns and uncertainty. [The academy]was there for us when we needed them.”This summer, Goldberg and theacademy struck a deal that allows theschool to pay for a $1.5 million upgrade toa high-speed lift and then lease it back tothe resort. That agreement also includeda $1 million reduction in debt that the